Rebirth 79: I opened a bank in the United States

"Tens of thousands of monthly sales? Is it true or false?"

Carter looked suspiciously at the suitcase with the big butt head on Rick's desk.
According to Rick, it was only launched two years ago. Isn't this about the same time as IBM's first personal PC was launched?Their annual sales of 25 units have shocked my mother for a whole year.
If this thing sells tens of thousands a month, how can it leave a strong mark in the future? !
In this day and age, it is not easy to be able to fight against IBM on the sales side!
"Why lie to you?! To be honest, I was actually taken aback by this data, but it is indeed true!"

"Even if the monthly sales volume is 1700 units, the price of one unit is about 700 knives, which means that the monthly turnover is [-] million US dollars! In less than half a year, the sales will exceed [-] million?!"

Silently calculating the sales of this Osborn, Carter was shocked:
"Have you checked their profit margin?"

"I don't know the details, but I asked someone to find out some things. At least in terms of software, their cost is very low! Basically, they find some small software companies and buy them outright. I can't estimate the total cost. 1000 million"

"In other places, to be honest, the materials used in this computer are not good. I don't know much about chips, but I remember I heard you say that IBM's computers can already use MB as a unit for storage. , but its memory size is still only 64kb”

"Then I guess the chip is not very good, can you let me dismantle this computer?"

"Take it apart, I bought it back as a sample research, it's just right, you take it apart, I'll take a look. In this regard, I recently learned a little bit of knowledge, but it shouldn't be comparable to yours. Remember to tell me when you take it apart. Just talk about it!"

As if by magic, he took out a toolbox from under the table. Rick shut down the computer first without feeling sorry, and then pushed the toolbox in front of Carter.

"Is there a class tomorrow morning? Are you sure it will be demolished now?"

Opening the box, he took out a screwdriver, Carter looked at the moonlight outside the window, hesitant.

"It's okay, the sky is big and the earth is big, and the career is the biggest! I have a class at 09:30 tomorrow, don't worry, hurry up, let's do it!"

"Okay, anyway, I don't have class tomorrow morning, so you can make up your mind."

After all, Carter is not polite.

If his roommate had an average family background, Carter might hesitate.After all, this is an object bought by others with real money, but for this kind of old rice flag boy
You're welcome!

"Oh, this thing, although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs! It has a disk reader?!"

Looking around the Osborn computer, while looking for the place where the knife was cut, Carter also carefully looked at the situation and general structure of this thing.

A five-inch mini-screen is inlaid in the center of the computer, and on both sides are some designs similar to the CVD disc reading port in the previous life. The opened "box cover" part has a keyboard inlaid on it.

Although this kind of design cannot be compared with the notebook computers of later generations, in this era, PCs with such a high degree of integration really made Carter discover some new inspirations.

"Sure enough, it's a CRT screen! When I first saw this long-bottom case, I guessed it, but it's not a big problem. Nowadays, most monitors use CRT screens."

After removing the case, Carter immediately noticed the parts extending behind the small screen.The electron gun and the deflection coil, the two standard parts of the CRT monitor, made Carter recognize its origin in an instant.

"CRT screen? Is there any explanation for this?"

"There is nothing to say. The simple summary is that the cost of this display technology is relatively low, but you can see the disadvantages, not to mention the image quality. At least, it is not suitable for this kind of portable computer, it takes up too much space!"

"Okay, I'll take notes."

As a novice among computer noobs, Rick's record is simple and shocking: CRT takes up a lot of space and costs less; if the space is to be reduced, the production cost will increase.Separation applications on different product lines can be considered.
"I almost figured it out, this thing is amazing! Really, amazing!"

When the clock on the wall pointed to two o'clock, Carter looked at the screen of Osborn's computer that was glowing with faint blue light, and sincerely admired it.

Yes, it is indeed admiration!

"This guy named Adam Osborne may not be very good, but the business direction is right! In terms of hardware, shrinking so much is an exaggeration!"

"The chip, Zilog's Z80, is basically an A product of the Intel 8080 chip. You know, the Intel 8086 has been out for many years, and this is still an old 8-bit chip. The computing power is completely incomparable with the latest one."

"But it is enough! It is enough to meet the general daily office needs! Moreover, Zilog Z80 is also cheap! It is more than half cheaper than the genuine 8080, and this chip is considered to be a very, very large chip in the market. Chips. The production line is sufficient, and if you purchase on a large scale, it will not cost much, especially I noticed that this is still manufactured by Mostek. It is not a chip directly produced by Zilog.”

"Does this mean that the cost will be lower?"

"It's hard to say. Zilog has two foundries in the United States, Synretek and Mostek, and SGS in Europe. I heard that there is also a foundry in Japan. It seems to be Sony or which one. I don't remember the details. Normally, the foundry is only responsible for production, and the price is still determined by Zilog, but...it’s hard to say.”

Z80's lifespan is too long. As a chip that appeared on the market in the 70s, among other things, Nintendo's red and white machines seem to use this chip.It stands to reason that for such a large-scale application, if Japan only has the OEM of Z80, then in theory, it doesn't matter whether it is Nintendo or any other company.

If they want to use the Z80 chip, they must pay Zilog.But think about the Japanese game consoles that will almost dominate the entire East Asia and even the world in the future. With such a huge volume, with the urgency of the Japanese, can they honestly pay Zilog for every chip?

Carter doesn't believe it!I don't believe it at all!
This is not racial prejudice, but any qualified businessman must find a way to reduce costs.It can be applied to its own products on a large scale, either, the price of this chip is unimaginably low; or, after the Japanese foundry business has obtained the power of foundry, it has also obtained the power of distribution, or in other words, free improvement and power to dispose of the chip.

It is equivalent to getting a technical authorization!
Only in this way can the cost be suppressed!
"But right now, I can be sure that this thing is not expensive! It's even cheaper than I originally thought, purchasing AMD chips! And in terms of the system, hehehe CP/M is also the same."

"For the DRI of CP/M, the boss Kiri Dale is an idiot. He personally released a tiger that could eat him! Maybe at any time, this company will fall into my hands. One piece. Hehehe."